Chambers family Magherafeld

You haven’t actually given us your ancestor’s full name or his complete year of birth. The town that he was apparently born is likely Magherafelt, rather than Magherafeld.

I had a look in the 1831 census for Magherafelt. There were only 2 Chambers households in the parish. (Headed by Mathew and William Chambers). Both were in the townland of Aghagaskin. Both were Presbyterian (so probably of Scottish origins, arriving in the 1600s). No Chambers in Magherafelt in the 1901 census.

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/search/

No Chambers in Aghagaskin in Griffiths Valuation of 1859.

Magherafelt 1st Presbyterian church has records from 1771 onwards (with gaps);  or if you think your ancestor may have been Anglican then the Church of Ireland has records from 1718 onwards. Copies of both sets of records are held in PRONI (the public record Office) in Belfast. A personal visit is required to view them.

Hi,

I have been trying to research the Chambers families  in the Magherafelt area including Castle Dawson. I have found a number of Chambers in mentioned in the 1831 census covering various Townlands including Deregarve (as spelt in the census) and Town Parks. In Deregarve I found two families, an Alex Chambers with one female presumed to be his wife and in a nearby dwelling a Hugh Chambers with two females, one assumed to be his wife Elizabeth Sarah Shaw and a daughter based on later immigration records inidacting she was born before the census of 1831. In addition, the household had three other males assumed to be Hugh's sons William and Alexander both born in England whilst Hugh was serving in the Royal Artillery and the third son Hugh my great great grandfather who came to Australia via New York. The Alex Chambers in the 1831 census is assumed to be the father of Hugh Chambers who served in the Royal Artillery as there was an Alex Chambers aged 86 listed in the passenger list for the ship Venice that left Belfast in 1846 for New York with Elizabeth [Shaw] Chambers and some of her children after Hugh senior died 1845 and due to the famine no prospect of a life in Derry most likely due to the loss of Hugh's service pension. Some of the Chambers children eventually married women in Australia believed to have lived in and around the area in Ireland where they lived and/or were born. The eldest son William who went direct to Australia (Sydney) married Catherine Lawrence (Laurence) whom he met on the voyage out, whilst Hugh my great great grandfather married Charlotte Mawhinnew (Mawhinney) whom he may have known as a young lad before going to anew York. Of interest is Catherine Lawrence's father is believed to have been married to a Charlotte Chambers. Is it possible that the Chambers families in the areas around Magherafelt and Castle Dawson were related? Who knows perhaps the Chambers' mentioned above were related. I believe that my Chambers family were most likely followed Presbyterian faith in Derry as Hugh and Elizabeth were married in St Mary the Virgin church Dover and Hugh and Charlotte were married by Rev Dr John Dunmore Lang who founded the Scott's Church in Australia, whilst Adam the youngest Chambers the youngest of the children who went to New York became a Baptist minister in the US. To date the only Irish sources I have found with any information giving any clues to Chambers families in the area are the 1831 census and the service records of my great great great grandfather Hugh Chambers. I have assumed that the Chambers' most likely came over to Derry from the Scottish lowlands during the years the English were bolstering the labour resources of the various companies who were given title over the lands in the period 1600s through 1700s.

Any insights, pointers or information to help me better understanding my research to date would be of great assistance.

Regards,

John Chambers

John,

The tithe applotment records list families with land. In 1829 there were 3 Chambers families farming in the parish of Magherafelt. 2 different Davids and a Matthew, in Ballyheifer, Aghagaskin & Magherafelt town.

http://www.irishgenealogyhub.com/derry/tithe-applotments/magherafelt-parish.php

If your family were not listed in the tithes then that normally suggests they were labourers or in some other trade where they did not have any land. Farm labourers were very common and made up a large proportion of those who emigrated.

The family may have left because of the famine (a couple of million did) but there were other factors at play too.  There had been a population explosion and there just wasn’t the land or jobs for that many people. The population in 1741 was 3 million. In 1841 it was 8 million (it’s only 6 million today). There was no spare land, Ireland had very few natural resources (no coal, oil, minerals) and so the industrial revolution largely passed it by, in contrast to Scotland, England, North America etc where hundreds of thousands of new jobs existed in coal mining, railways, steel making, ship building and so on. So people had been pouring out of Ireland all through the 1800s. All the famine did was speed it up a bit. In addition, increased mechanisation on farms and new farming practices reduced the need for farm labourers, plus mechanisation of the weaving industry made hand loom weaving (which many labourers did in the winter) uneconomic. All of these were factors in the decision to emigrate.

Your assumption that the family is descended from settlers, probably from Scotland, is very reasonable, especially if they were Presbyterians. (The Scots brought Presbyterianism to Ireland). Half the population of Magherafelt and Co. Derry/Londonderry has the same origins, arriving in the 1600s. Some came as part of the Plantation 1610 - 1625, some remained behind after the Scots army was disbanded at Carrickfergus at the end of the 1641 uprising, and there was a large surge of settlers from Scotland in the 1690s due to famine there.

This link takes you to Maitland’s history of Magherafelt written in 1916. You may find it helpful:

https://archive.org/stream/historyofmaghera00mait/historyofmaghera00mait_djvu.txt

Description of the effect of the famine in Magherafelt (source is PRONI & in turn Bill Macafee’s website).

http://www.billmacafee.com/otherrecords/faminebackground.pdf 

The church records for Magherafelt are generally not on-line and so if you want to research them you need to get someone to go to PRONI. If you are unable to go yourself, you could employ a researcher. Researchers in the PRONI area: http://sgni.net

Elwyn, thanks for your response and my apologies for the long delay in responding. Following on from your comment about the tithe applotment records I found a copy of theTithe applotment for the parish of Artrea,... c 1820 - c 1840 on the PRONI website in that document I have located a Thomas Mawhinney, possibly the grandfaher-in-law of Hugh Chambers who migrated to New York then on to Australia. Hugh married Charlotte Mawhinnew [Mawhinney] in Australia. Charlotte was the second daughter of Samuel Mawhinnew [Mawhinney] whose father base on my research to date appears to be a Thomas Mawhiiney from Co Derry. In the same records for Derrygarve is an Alexander Chambers which could be Hugh's grandfather who migrated to New York when Hugh's mother took the family there in 1847 after the death of her husband Hugh and the birth of their youngest son Adam Chambers. Adam went on to become a Reverend in the US and was noted for his lecture tours of the US, England, and Europe on the subject of the Pilgrims Progress. The Chambers Baptist Memorial Chuch in New York is named after Adam who was the presiding minister for many years. Once again thanks for the guidance it has helped me to refocus my efforts after setting aside my research in this area. Whilst all the information so far is inconclusive it is more breadcrumbs to follow.

Regards,

John Chambers